Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-10-14
The Prune Business,

AA OftJOHttH vi
September oath, writing from Can.
yonville, says: Mr.. Adams sold last
year 1880 pounds of dried Prunes
the product of 700 trees. He esti-
mates the cost of picking, drying and
boxing at one cent per round. If
sold in Portland the cost of freight
and commissions will be an additional
one cent per pound. They sell in
Portland for eight cents per pound.
This year Mr.. Adams estimates the
output of his orchard at 10000
pounds OF dried fruit" If sold at the
same rate it will net him 81 200 over
current expenses. These trees have
been set seven years, principally Petite,
Italian and German prunes. "The
trees show good care, looking exceed
ingly thrifty and vigorous, and some
of them have borne this year from six
to eight bushels of fruit each, and one
tree ten bushels"
5. A. Clarke, Salem, says, in Ore
gonian of Sept. 81, that his own eight
year old trees broke down with only
one bushel to the tree. "To put six to
eight bushels, of fifty pounds, or ten
bushels, as one tree is said to bear, is
simply impossible. My fruit brought
an average of two cents to the pound.
On average good bearing trees Petite
prunes bring 8 to 10 cents and Ital-
ians sell for IL to 124 cents. 4
To clear $3.50 to $500 on an acre, anu
ally, is quite good enough for me, and
if my orchard will yield bushel to
the tree, it will pay me not less than
$4,000 net per annum"
In the Oregonian, Oct. 3, Mr.. II. A.
Adams says that Mr. Manning's state
ments, in regard to his prune orchard
are true, and not cxagerations," or
" impossibilities." Mr.. Manning re-
plies to Mr.. Clarke, know a rancher
who several years ago planted out sew
eral hundred prune trees in a patch of
squirrel grass, then left them to the
and showers and tender
mercies of the gophers and digger
squirrels, and his experiment now
promises about the same results that
c. has accomplished among the sorrel
and fern roots on his poor red hill
south of Salem. Poor spindling trees
that break down with one bushel of
fruit, although eight years old.
4 measured some of the largest of
Mr.. Adams trees around the body two
feet from the ground, and found them
eighteen to twenty-one inches. The
trees have been kept well pruned and
topped to keep them near the ground,
yet many of them have a height of
fifteen to eighteen feet and spread of
branches OF fourteen to sixteen feet"
The above represents a friendly
squabble between some of our Oregon
neighbors. But turn the question
how they will, this fact remains: the
turkey is there. One hundred and
fifty dollars per acre net, seems to be
the lowest product. OF an orchard of
prunes, where anything at all is ex-
pected. Total neglect may reduce
these figures, as we can see by looking
at our neighboring orchards. Prunes
are not the only profitable fruit crop
that may be grown here, but it seems
to require less skill and push to get
them into market than other fruits,
equally prolific, which might yield a
better return, if properly handled.
But $3.50 to $500 per acre net per an
mum is not so despicable income as
our people seem to think; judging
from this fact, that We have tens of
thousands of acres of the best of fruit
growing land, all uncultivated in any
manner, within the county of Thurs
ton, and there cannot be found therein
if our knowledge is correct, n single
ten-acre lot of we'll cultivated fruit
trees, and do not know of one single
acre that is so cultivated.
The best fruit lands Of the world
border this, Olympia harbor, not to
speak of all the borders of Puget
Sound and its island, all equally good
for the most marketable fruits pro-
duced in the world.
Why should We not have $4,000
acres of wealth-producing orchards
about us within the next five years or
say ten? We have the uncultivated
land and the exhaustless market. APP
pies, cherries, pears and prunes all
grow here in luxuriant profusion
| ouCll us CiluOt Dc uIlcu OE SOiu STccIl
may be canned and fed to the whole
world at handsome profit. Wheat
has come to an over supply, but these
fruits never can, for the reason that
the fruit belt OF the world is so small
as to preclude the possibility Of al
over supply in any district, now thai
cheap transportation has reached al
lands.
From $3.50 to $500 per acre eacl
year surely awaits him who plants al
orchard of a few we'll selected varie
ties of prunes. JOSH.
THE Wizard Oil concert people, afte
making a sixty-day tour through
British Columbia, disbanded and Wen
to San Francisco.
| THOMAS Mast, the great cartoonist